portege: Since I can't buy songs off iTunes, can I buy DRM songs off Coketunes or Digirama, burn it onto a CD and rip it back into MP3?? Then chuck it on my iPOD??

YES! That works. I do it all the time (burning CDs then ripping back to MP3 that is).

I can't see why the ripped MP3s won't play in your iPOD. There is nothing special about them once they've been ripped. It gets rid of all the DRM stuff quite nicely.

Once parliament get around to passing the amended copyright legislation, it will also be quite legal as in effect it is "Format Shifting" (so long as you don't send the MP3 files to anyone else that is).

Technically it will work, but you will incur signal loss because what you are effectively doing is decompressing and recompressing the audio signal. Remember, the sound quality of online music downloads is pretty bad even in their pure state.

alasta: Technically it will work, but you will incur signal loss because what you are effectively doing is decompressing and recompressing the audio signal. Remember, the sound quality of online music downloads is pretty bad even in their pure state.

You're obviously a purist Alasta and I respect that. For you, only Lossless Audio Compression is good enough.

However, for the rest of us listening on PC Multimedia Speakers, Car Stereos and iPODs, the difference is pretty much inaudible.

I certainly can't tell any difference between the original downloaded WMA file and the ripped back MP3 file. I'm using a pair of Cambridge Soundworks Speakers with a sub-woofer.

By no means the best speakers out there, but not junk either (they originally came with my SoundBlaster Live card).

When you transfer the files to an MP3 Data CD for playing in the Car Stereo, or transfer them to an iPOD as Portege has discussed, the difference is going to be even more inaudible.

I will grant you that there is a SMALL difference between an original track played from a CD and a 128kbps MP3 file. Where possible I always prefer to rip the MP3 files at 192kbps or higher. Having done that, I really cannot hear any difference between the original CD track and the 192kbps MP3 file. Others may beg to differ, but that's my experience.

128kbps MP3 files still beat the hell out of the old way of copying music for your Car or Walkman which was to use a cassette tape, so I guess it's all relative to your expectations.

I certainly appreciate the flexibility of being able to buy ONLY the tracks I want via CokeTunes and not being forced to pay $20 - $30 for a whole CD which in many cases contains at least 60 to 80% junk tracks with just a few good ones thrown in.

Grant17: You're obviously a purist Alasta and I respect that. For you, only Lossless Audio Compression is good enough.

However, for the rest of us listening on PC Multimedia Speakers, Car Stereos and iPODs, the difference is pretty much inaudible.

Actually, I'm pretty happy with 192kbps MP3 or 128kbps AAC, but I find myself struggling to enjoy 128kbps WMA and any further degradation is even more unwelcome.

I do, however, take your point that you need to consider the type of hardware that you intend to play your music on. There's no point in insisting on lossless compression if you're listening through a pair of those dreadful headphones that are packed in with iPods.

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